Challenge 2017 - #9 & 10

I purchased fabric to make a quilt for a baby qirl. I over estimated the fabric requirements. I think in the back of my mind I knew I would need more fabric for other baby girl projects.

These two little lovelys (35" x 45") were dropped off for delivery to their new homes this weekend.

I found some ideas at lazygalquilting and joetulipsquilts with ideas for these blocks. Because I had 2" cut strips left over from the baby quilt of quilt #5 I cut more strips from my scraps to add to the stash. I sewed the strips together end on end, Jelly Roll Race fashion. I pressed the seam allowances open and then trimmed the strip into 9 1/2" lengths. I sewed 6 lengths together into 9 1/2" x 9 1/2" blocks.

I knew I was making 2 quilts and decided 3 blocks by 4 blocks with a border would give me a decent sized baby quilt.

I arranged the blocks and realized I was 3 blocks short, so sat down and made up the 3 missing blocks. Unfortunately when the 2 quilts were done and I was cleaning up, I found 3 completed blocks! I now have 3 blocks all ready to start another baby or little girl quilt.

I was able to use up some fabrics from my stash for the borders. The backing and binding were a plain bubblegum pink cotton.

To save some time, I sewed the backing fabrics together and loaded one backing and batting length on my frame. I then quilted one quilt and simple left a space and loaded and quilted the 2nd quilt. I used WonderFil's Tutti variegated cotton thread to quilt top and bottom.

I love this thread as the variegation lengths are random and give great visual interest to any quilting project.

I played a bit with the quilting. I had spent some time doodling and came up with a new way (to me) to quilt hearts. I like them.

I've got a strip set started and as I finish other "girly" projects in the next few months, I'll be able to add more pieces to the super long strip set.

That's quilts # 9 and 10 completed in my 2017 Challenge to finish 52 Quilt Projects. #11 is heading down to the studio this afternoon to be loaded and quilted!